U.S. government requested data from Verizon 320,000 times last year

Being the nation's largest carrier means that the U.S. Government will probably come to you often for information about your customers. Last year, Verizon received 320,000 requests for information from Federal, State and Local law enforcement. Verizon points out in its Transparency Report that it does not release customer info "unless authorized by law, such as a valid law enforcement demand or an appropriate request in an emergency involving the danger of death or serious physical injury."

Verizon broke down the requests by different types, which you can find in the chart below. The mobile operator pointed out that law enforcement was typically interested in consumer subscribers, not enterprise customers. The subpoenas received by Verizon were mostly for the name and address of a specific customer based on a phone number. Some subpoenas requested information on phone numbers called by certain customers.

Verizon also received court orders, signed by a judge. A "pen register" order allows Verizon to give out information about phone calls being made by a certain phone number in real time. Verizon also noted that it received 1500 requests for wiretaps last year, and received 14,500 warrants for stored information, such as a text message.

Verizon's full year total compares to the 37,000 requests for information received over the first 6 months of the year by Microsoft. During the same period of time, Yahoo received 12,444 orders and Apple had between 1000 and 2000 such requests. Big Red is the first carrier to provide a Transparency Report, and while it did not give out a specific number, it did say that the requests for information were up from the 2012 total.


source: Verizon via PCMag